Jeff in TD

Anybody here up to speed on Honda mowers?

I'm looking at 2 models:

HRX217hxa (apparently the same as HRX217k2hxa). If I understand their alphabet soup, it's a residential, 21", 7hp, hydrostat propelled, rotorstop equipped American made mower. This has the polymer deck, and Honda's system to change between mulch, bagging, and side discharge w/o additional attachments. The GCV190 engine apparently uses an internal belt to drive the cam?

The other one is the HRC216HXA (or 216K3hxa). Commercial 21" hydrostat, rotorstop, American made. Bumping up to the commercial series apparently gets you a steel deck, shaft drive to the hydrostat unit (instead of belt), iron liner push rod engine (no cam belt). It's set up to bag, and I think the side discharge shoot from my old Honda will fit.


The Commercial one seems to have a more durable engine. Although the polymer deck has a limited lifetime warranty, I'd prefer to have steel that I can weld. I also like the idea of no cam belt, no drive belt.

The downside is the Commercial is really heavy (127#) and over $300 more expensive.

Any thoughts?

Raspy

I bought the commercial model and really like it, although I wish it had a bit more power. The engine always starts right up and doesn't use any oil. I'm sure it will outlive me.

The shaft drive hydro is nice. Also the dealer told me the residential model was a real cheap engine, still a Honda instead of a Briggs, but cheap for Honda and had a plastic camshaft?! What?

If the blade ever did break the steel deck would be nice to have. It is heavy when lifting into the Dodge, but it's beefy.

I looked into bombing the engine, but the porting is real small and hard to open up much. So I cranked the governor up (easy and really helped) and opened up the exhaust a bit. Some carb work would probably help some too.

grantx5

Bought mine in '91, still starts one pull, cuts great. Either way you win.

Jeff in TD

Thanks for the replies.

I dropped by the Honda dealer, and he kind of made the decision for me. He had one leftover HRX217hxa and gave me a really good price. The commercial one would be bullet proof, but I thought a mower with MSRP over $1,000 was overkill.

Anyway, I am really happy with this thing. It is easily the nicest piece of power equipment I've ever used (including older Hondas). The hydrostat transmission is really slick. You can change speed on the fly, and it has a wide range of settings.

I'm also really impressed with the versamow thing. I didn't realize you can set it partway inbetween bag and mulch in wetish long grass, and just the clumps that didn't shread go into the bag.

Anyway, in this economy I got everything I could want. Excellent price, from a locally owned store, on an excellent quality item, made in America...

MikeyB

I have a commercial 21" Honda mower bought back in 1989. Still going strong. Think it will probably outlast me.

MikeyB

PChouinard

Not much help for your recent purchase, but I got 12 years of service from a honda mower. Of course I serviced it every year and washed it (hosed off all the loose grass) after every mow. Only one time did I go through with a gasket kit and I ground the valves with a DeWalt and a Dremel. i ended up giving it away to my POS inlaws when I got my Deere. I think they ran it into it's grave like the average shmoe would. Bottom line...... one quality mower!

flytrip

A little late to this thread, but, I use an HRC216 commercially. It has mowed between 30-60 lawns for 9 years. The only repairs I have made were to the POS throttle cable. They last longer than our bigger mowers for sure.

Jeff in TD

My old mower was also a honda, but a push. When I bought it used it was smoking, and I put rings in it.

That was like 14 years ago... Finally smokes again, and the alloy deck is scabbed together in a few places. I'd hate to guess how many thousands of hours that thing has on it.

Though I would have preferred a gear driven cam and rockers instead of a belt driven overhead cam, and an iron cylinder instead of one with the high tech material, I think this HRX will last a very long time.

It sure is comfortable to handle, powerful, with a feel of refined engineering. The hydrostat drive is really slick, and so is the versa-mow.

I can be a hard customer to please, but I am extremely pleased with this purchase.

Asher

Funny you brought this up, about 2 weeks ago I was in the same delima... But I think you might have your numbers crossed (or maybe I do) because I was pretty sure the commercial steel deck we actually lighter...

anyway, I went with the composit deck for a couple of reasons, the versa mow system, life time warrenty, and once I found out that there is a option to install SS side guards on the deck to protect it from rubbing the landscaping blocks... I really don't care if it isn't as good of an engine as the commercial level, I still haven't seen a worn out honda engine (that was taken care of), usually everything else goes first...

If your impressed with the mower, you should try one of their weed-eaters , I bought one of those also as a package deal... I know there are some very nice 2 stroke weed-eaters out there, but I wanted a 4-stroke and the honda was the only one that looked decent enough... Man that thing is SWEET, 1 pull starting, quite enough to talk over (normal voice) when idling, well balanced, and plenty powerful....

Now I cut grass and don't come in smelling like I have been riding dirt bikes all day or working on outboards...

Now I am just trying to figure out how soon I can swap out the oil and put in some Mobile 1... I just really don't know what to consider a good break-in period...

Jeff in TD

I think my old mower was pretty well worn out. The deck was all busted up, a bearing in the rotostop was making noise, and it was kind of clattery (I think the main bearing)... But it was worn out when I bought it used 14 years ago.

Anyway, strange you should mention weedwackers. I've got a weedeater that is also around 15 years old. It won't idle down right, and I think its leaking air around the crankshaft.

I've sure got my money's worth out of it, and I was thinking I'd be getting a new one soon. I remember an article somewhere about the problems of getting a 4 stroke to run in any position which would likely be required to meet tightening emissions, but I didn't know Honda had a trimmer out.

I'll have to check them out.

Asher

Yes they do and it will run in any position, also it is one of the two out there that has an actual oil pump (pressurized system), well at least that is what the salesman told me... one other thing I liked about it, is that it will accept a brush cutter blade.

here is the one I got, I was alittle worried about the same engine 25cc (my old one was 32cc) but it has more power then my old one ever did...
http://www.hondapowerequipment.com/p...lid=HHT25SLTAT

time will tell if it is worth the cost, but so far I am VERY impressed...

Asher

Funny you brought this up, about 2 weeks ago I was in the same delima... But I think you might have your numbers crossed (or maybe I do) because I was pretty sure the commercial steel deck we actually lighter...

anyway, I went with the composit deck for a couple of reasons, the versa mow system, life time warrenty, and once I found out that there is a option to install SS side guards on the deck to protect it from rubbing the landscaping blocks... I really don't care if it isn't as good of an engine as the commercial level, I still haven't seen a worn out honda engine (that was taken care of), usually everything else goes first...

If your impressed with the mower, you should try one of their weed-eaters , I bought one of those also as a package deal... I know there are some very nice 2 stroke weed-eaters out there, but I wanted a 4-stroke and the honda was the only one that looked decent enough... Man that thing is SWEET, 1 pull starting, quite enough to talk over (normal voice) when idling, well balanced, and plenty powerful....

Now I cut grass and don't come in smelling like I have been riding dirt bikes all day or working on outboards...

Now I am just trying to figure out how soon I can swap out the oil and put in some Mobile 1... I just really don't know what to consider a good break-in period...